Spektrum servos

Hi all, I hope this is the right place for this question. Has anyone used the Spektrum 5030 digital servo with the coreless motor and if so have you had any issues?

I have 6 of these in a model and one seems to have an intermittent problem of refusing to respond to TX input at the most frustrating times..

Example ground check all good, takeoff fine first turn poor response call a landing and good control to get it down taxi in all good, surfaces moving as they should, put it on the bench one aileron not working, change the wiring for that servo from RX to servo, all good then the bad behaviour starts again, I do not think it is the RX as surely that would not affect only a single channel?

Thoughts anyone..

Tony..

Broken wire that makes intermittent contact? I'd suspect the servo lead/plug in the first instance.

Iffy crimp, bad solder joint ?

Intermittent faults are a pain to isolate.

Fractured wiring, faulty plugs, dry joints, cracked circuit boards....... it could be anything.

For peace of mind, if the fault cannot be traced, bin the servo and buy a new one.

Well I finally discovered the problem, after swapping out the servo for a new one and changing all extensions between it and the RX I took it upon myself to really examine the offending parts, I used them all on a bench setup with components I knew to be good, it turns out the female end of one extension allowed the pins to move back from the servo lead when it was plugged into it, a very small amount but enough I believe to not have a good solid contact, so with a quick manoeuvre or small bump on landing would cause the connection to move and create the problems I experienced.

The extensions I used were Futaba type, not sure if they were actual Futaba or a look alike but the female connectors look a bit oversized, just an opinion on my part but if it helps anyone in the future it has served it's purpose..

Happy building days to you all and stay safe and well over there..

Tony..

Fair play to you Tony, most of us wouldn't be so persistent.

Some people hard wire their models, to eliminate extensions all together. A bit of a faff, but if you have a lot of money invested in a model, it's got to be worth it.

D.D.

That's all very well, Dwain, but you're going to have connectors somewhere, though I agree it's better to have as few as possible.

Anyway, Tony, it's always soothing when you find a problem and correct it and know that it's one fault fewer - hopefully counting to zero

Geoff

The beauty of Powerbox leads is that you can see the Male and Female connections, I've been making all my own leads for about two years and they dont really cost that much more than any other lead.